I Made A Game Prototype And Here It Is! (HARDBOILED Dev Log #1) 

It's interesting seeing some of the reactions to this project :) I work full time in software engineering, so yes, this took 6 months of random free evenings and weekends. I spent most of the time working with Godot engine (2.0) and making a back-end that allows me to easily create dialogue systems and mysteries... SO most of the work is not visible. Next time I would focus on walking through the code and design as a first dev log, then make a polished demo later on, since it's hard to appreciate a hard-coded, baked demo versus an extensible system if you can't see the source. I need to refactor this and port it to Godot 3.0/C# to reasonably continue, and I'm a bit tired of fiddling with these systems, so I'd call this in hiatus but not dead (I'd still like to repurpose the story for something). The repo is now public if you'd like to take a look: github.com/anneomcl/GodotMysteryGame My goal is that the next project I post here will focus entirely on polish, even if it's very short. Hopefully it will be here by the end of 2018 :)

cool build so far :D consider me for voice work if youre thinking about it, ill do it for free :D

Amazing idea, I really like the concept. Good luck on finishing the project, as far as I understand, this was the fun part, but the later stages of development can be very tedious. Anyway, can't wait for the Log #2 :)

I see I'm not the only one up all night.

This is exactly the kind of mystery game I have always wanted to play. The idea of giving the clues a value for your deductions is genius as well. It makes it less ambiguous and it feels more like a game. It would be funny if this crime was the first one in the game and the characters A and B looked like the letters "A" and "B".

The clue system is kind of like the one of the Miles Edgeworth investigation games, but instead of just matching observations you actually have to understand what you are trying to prove. Great! Now the big problem I see is the results it gives: shouldn't combining 2 clues make a stronger asumption rather than one that's between the 2 other scores? I know you didn't explain everything, but I think you should only be able to contradict a clue with a more convincing clue, and that would either give the fake one a negative score, or better yet: make a new clue summing up what you just proved. I think you should only have 2 actions in the clue screen: a button to combine and a button to disproof. A+B=C is too much like A&B. A good way to avoid the clutter would be making the "combined clues" display the number of clues they were made with: if you want to add a third clue in the mix, you have to click on one outside to select it, then on the "folder". Maybe make it so that you can only add a new clue if you can also tell what clue it corelates to in the folder? Some cool elements later on would be "?" clues given by characters you don't know enough. Combining those with a clue saying if they did have a motive to lie would reveal the true value of it. Also, having the ability to separate the screen in 2 or 3 colomns with pre-made spots, each one representing a theory or a line of thought could help solve very complex puzzles.

I love network-y logic-y puzzle thing! That looks like a great set-up for a detective game. And like nothing I've seen before. Awesome. :D

If you need music or sounds, I could make some for you for free :)

Great prototype. I love how you focused on the gameplay not graphics or anything else (something I cannot do myself :D). While watching the clue node screen, I thought it could be interesting to have them collide and push each other so they never overlap this way. Good luck with development, it's definitely interesting and up my alley :)

I think how good this kind of game is will depend heavily on how good the art, music and storytelling are, it's not very gameplay-centric (as in, the fun doesn't really lie in learning how to play and how to do it well, like for example fighting games). So as it is now it's difficult to really see a draw to it, the logic with clues functionality is kind of cool but I'm afraid it'll quickly turn into a chore since it's pretty gimmicky, and I feel like it's bound to be frustrating at times because players will see things differently from you and there's a good chance they'll try combinations which they think should work but won't because you did not see things from that angle. Overall I think the general design needs some work.

awesome!

Looks cool! This actually reminds me of a Video by Mark Brown talking about what makes a good detective game. Might be interesting if you don't know it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gwV_mA2cv_0.html

You should make it so that the old clues don't get removed but instead you see the entire clue tree, if you for some reason forget what the investigation was about or how it got to the current state

A+B=>C ... why does that get you the average points? Also, as you have to define the C-Card beforehand, you probably can't freely combine every card with every other... so how do you prevent this from being very linear and people being able to just try every combination of cards and only the right ones are working... so this turns in an escape room type of game instead of really a puzzle game

I have only played phoenix wright and danganronpa, but I haven't seen a logic mechanic like that in the genre. I really look forward to seeing it finish.

Why don't you call them Alex and Bob?

This is cute! I cant wait to be able to play the completed version!

Looks lovely. I never played this kind of game but I might give it a try. I will give you a feedback in case I play it. By the way I would make some kind of reputation for the mc and perhaps the other npc as well. If you falsely accuse someone it goes down and if you steal stuff from people during your investigation as well. But if you are honest it goes up. You could also do several character traits like you only accuse someone if he is 100% guilty or you are racist towards certain kinds of creatures or if you steal stuff yourself and so on. I would really implement the possibility of stealing into the game. And if you are careful you get caught yourself. I know this makes everything more complex but with enough time it should be doable. And racist can be done by which kind of question you ask someone or if you accuse some type of creature before you have 100% certainty on a regular basis.

This seems a really nice game and I think it is very original .

From your description of the game I thought, "cool, but not my sort of game." Then I watched your demo and it awoke Monkey Island feelings in me, making me want to play.

It's a pity the second video on this didn't happen. The game looks fun and interesting.

If you want to have a penalty for incorrect or premature accusations, perhaps Abigail could have a "detective score" or something, where the more thorough your investigation is, the more points she gains when she makes the correct accusation. If the player makes their accusation too early, she could receive a penalty based on the amount of evidence she missed. Perhaps this score could then be used for like a promotion system where you unlock more challenging cases as you rise through the ranks of the squash squad.

In a nutshell? Surely it should be in an eggshell!

such a beautiful girl which is playing computer games?. nice ;D

Gday Did you code the entire game in C/C+/Java/python ? I'm just wondering why you just didn't use UNITY or UE4

opengameart.org is great for assets when you're just prototyping or doing something for fun.

Really nice prototype. I don't envy you this task though, seems like it's complexity from a programming/writing perspective will increase extremely fast as the cases get more complex. Are there any potential benefits to accusing early? If you want further inspiration you might want to check out the video "What Makes a Good Detective Game? | Game Maker's Toolkit" by Mark Brown. You might want to check out Socrates Jones too. It's a great Ace Attorney inspired Flash game with slightly different mechanics focusing on formal logic.

NB4 10 Comments!

Designwise rounded might look great in the menus.

Supposition: A is attracted to lemony things; may even be one quarter lemon fairy on their mother's side. If you need a key to access the desk when A is away, then B is unlikely to have planted things... Anyway, to answer the questions posed - yes, I love the idea, both gameplay and story (big Ace Attorney fan too) - I also have fiction ideas fermenting in the back of my mind about a detective working in a world with magic, pioneering magical forensics (locked room mysteries just got a whole lot more weird when you can walk through walls, teleport, etc). Logic puzzles are definitely my thing - I'll certainly follow this with interest. One thing that annoys me in Ace Attorney is when you spot a contradiction but the game (or perhaps Phoenix) doesn't follow your line of reasoning and you just make a fool of yourself pressing it in front of the court until you address a different contradiction or piece of evidence or invoke a random section of dialogue elsewhere. I assume that comes down to the writing - damn but it has got to be very, very tight!

I'm curious as to how you assign trustworthiness score to clues. Also, if the numbers change as the story progresses. Like, you may have trusted somebody, until a story event where, surprise!, that character was lying all along, or maybe that character was hiding things which makes that character's claims less trustworthy, etc. Also maybe introduce different coloured lines connecting the clues for different relations (like green if they support each other, and red if they condradict, etc). I've always wanted to make such a game, but never gotten around to doing anything. Good luck on your game!

The most important thing about the game is the idea and you seem to have a very good one. I wish you best of luck Don't give up on your project and one day this game will be a bestseller :)

Not entirely sure but for 12:30 "A Could have taken the cookies" Doesn't contradict what he said "He took a few cookies" That is supporting the fact he took a few.

You smile so good! Your cheeks 😍

Never hit like so fast b4

If you enjoy the process of creating games you should join the ludum dare jam. I did for the first time and it was as tiring as fun. I really enjoyed it

It's interesting to see other people trying to make games. I'm in the same situation. I spent the first half of the year working on a game called Disobey Me (you can actually download a demo, if anyones's interested). I kind of lost the motivation due to personal stuff but am currently planning a new game that really sparked my energy again. Your colored rectangles remind me of Thomas was alone. Do you know that game? It is great at giving shapes personalities. There really is no need for detailed art if you can figure out how to make simple things interesting. Restricting yourself can lead to the most creativity. In any way, it's the right choice to worry about the visuals later and focus on the gameplay first.

Almost disliked because I thought it said the hippie cat, glad I stayed around Haha! That's pretty impressive. You're very talented.

I make games myself, if you want real help, you should contact me. I am currently making my own VR game. I am almost a year in. I have programmed for over ten years.

I'd love to play this when it comes out, the idea is awesome

L.A. Noire Thehappiecat version

Great work... hard to code, after the learning curve.. but your Story line is Awesome.... most people are functional and not POETIC.. like yourself... Love it

i love this concept! you are so inspiring! i hope to enter the make-your-own-game-from-scratch universe soon, and i don't know anything yet. literally. so yeah. ONLY 6 MONTHS!?!?!? OH MY GAWD THIS IS GOLD!!!!

For calculating total guilt, I suggest adding(or averaging) up the means and the motives separately, then multiplying them together. That means that if there is overwhelming evidence that a suspect could have done something, the accusation will still be fairly weak if the motive is something weak like "Sometimes people like to eat cookies". My video game specialty is mathematically modeling complex real-life systems, so if you want any help with that, just ask :).

wow good job! the cutscene system and specially the clue system look really great! keep up the good work!

"It's all of my favourite things.. and I really enjoy the process..." exactly the same, including working everyday if only scraping 30mins + getting the gameplay in place before fleshing out with design + narrative. IMAO Gameplay > everything else. I can't wait to go full steam on graphics and animation for my own game, but agree gameplay has to be solid first. I think your concept and approach are outstanding. Your infectious enthusiastic delivery I am sure picks up many a jaded gamedev pushing through the small hours. Looking forward to the next Hardboiled devlog!

I really love the concept and mechanics of this game! Nicely done! The logic network is a great mechanic, and mixing detective-work with a fantasy world is such a unique mix. If you need any music, I'm @TiceTunes on Twitter, currently working on a game called Kynseed (@Kynseed) by @PixelCountGames. I'd be happy to work on this game. If you like my work and you're at the stage where music is a consideration, do get in touch.

I'm glad to see you've made this. I designed/prototyped a very similar game a couple of years ago and I keep meaning to take it up again, so I'm keen to see _something_ like it released, as it's something I want to play. My game was based more around the concept of a "logic puzzle" style of play where the player interrogates NPCs and the world to find out 'FACTS' and then has to mentally combined them to reach the answer. The main inspiration was "Everett Kaser's Sherlock meets Dwarf Fortress with the character-liking-interaction system of Crusader Kings 2". The major difference with my design to yours is that mine was automatically generated, rather than scripted, and that you actually got somewhere with yours :) I guess I'll have to watch that video about being more productive!

Nice idea, I'm eager to see what it will result! And I wonder if you considered implementing more realistic evaluation of probability of "A and B => C"? So that P(C) was P(A)*P(B) and not (P(A) + P(B))/2 ?

Hmm not really my kind of game... but it looks like it would be something that people who like mystery games would like :) Question: What happens if you get the puzzle/Node section wrong? It looks like there could be an arbitrary amount of combinations for each node, if you combine 2 would that not get you a result that is wrong. So your base assumptions could be wrong which would lead to the entire node graph being incorrect... Can you move on with incorrect clues? Assuming that is how it works how many of those little cards are you going to write? 4 nodes with each combining to make another card with 3 different options to make the card would mean that you have to make at most 9 supporting cards (initial nodes - 1 * options -> (4-1) * 3). That grows quite a bit as you add more cards the most i saw in the demo was 7 so with that thats 18 cards assuming my math is correct...

I really like the idea! I'll definitely try this when you'll provide the beta version (or even another alpha) :). Some thoughts I had: - Can you "brute force" the puzzles by combining the clues in every possible way? I don't think this should be possible because it really takes away an essential part... But I have no idea how this can be prevented yet (because a penalty mechanic would be somewhat weir here) - Different difficulties! You can keep the "Analyze Clues" changing colour to green for the "easy" mode. I think it'd be a greater challenge if it was always possible (for those people who really like to get through this without any help). - I'd mark the clues by having (smaller) facesets of the suspects at the lower left. I think this is a rather elegant way. - I don't like the numbers on the clue. I think showing such numbers to players isn't a good idea. Instead, I'd go with the very same logic - but instead of numbers use colours (e.g. light green for innocent to dark red for guilty). Depending on what the clues say, maybe the facesets on those clues (suggestion above) could be coloured instead to make the contents of the clue's text immediately apparent without reading it.

OH, THIS IS SO COOOOOL xD how are you doing it? which engine, which language I don't think you will want help, but i'd like to. also, (idea for the WAY future, make it possible to users to create cases to solve!)

It's great the way you block out your game! Also, I like the systems so far (mainly the clues system). I hope no player comes here and says something like "I DoN't LiKe ThE GrApHiCs", or similar nonsense XD

For the logic and deduction part, "formal argumentation" can help. -> www.cs.sfu.ca/CourseCentral/411/jim/Argumentation.pdf I'd be glad to help if you had questions regarding the pdf. Later you may also consider using Natural Language Understanding (NLP) tools, to make it more "smart".

If you need a good way to assess the point values for evidence, the logarithm of the odds ratio (with some arbitrary scaling to make the numbers easier to handle) is pretty useful. That way, you can just add the log-odds, convert back, and get the likelihood that the suspect is guilty given the evidence you added up using Bayes' Rule and log(a)+log(b)=log(a*b): arbital.com/p/bayes_log_odds/ Bayes' Rule is also a pretty robust way to collect information. There's no shame in pulling the odds ratios out of your ass; even your ass has standards. As long as you roughly hit the correct order of magnitude, the result won't be too far off.

"Without any further ado". Oh yes! It seems like there were a whole lot of a-doing to be done. You said "without any further ado" three times. And I stopped listening after the first! "Without any futher ado" is not a filler. When you say that you ought to come to the point rather swiftly, and not leave us hanging, waiting for the gag. I do believe this happens because you are nervous. You are "better" in most other videos i've seen.

This is a great idea and sounds like a lot of fun! This is definitely a type of game I would play. It reminds me of a couple of old computer games that did involve a game feature of gathering evidence to build a case to solve the game: "Murder on the Mississippi" by Activision (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4ZTbGp2EjNA.html), "Snooper Troops" (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xvJF-v_zbIc.html), and "Deadline" from Infocom (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TF5u0UtwQVM.html). These games are quite old, and the interface rather primitive on some (the latter is just a text adventure game), but you can see the 'build a case' mechanic at work in each of these. Might be worth checking out in terms of comparison with how they approached communicating these concepts to the player.

I really love the clue-accusation system! I think it's simple and clear enough so anyone could play your game (especially with a cookie tutorial) yet it isn't banal. It has a potential. I've seen similar games that oversimplified this part of the gameplay and while they were playable, they didn't give the feeling that you were a doing "real" detective work. Even if your game is cartoonish by design, it should have some "real" detective work if it's going to be a detective game. And with real logical relationships (and, therefore, contradicts) that you have you're actually doing real connections. This part of the game where you do the connections would look great if its interface was stylized like in the movies where you have a pinboard and you pin to it post-it notes, photos, scraps of papers and connect them with stings of wool of different colors or mark red herrings. Another advantage is that you can scale the size of your puzzles. Writing the script will probably be tough as the puzzles increase in volume. But you can also have story intensive breathers with simpler puzzles between harder ones. This system really gives you many possibilities. I don't know about the point system though. The idea is good (even though it needs some adjustments), but it can go out of control if not designed carefully. Maybe you should look into fuzzy logic? But hey, if you make it work then it's going to be great! Also, a game like this would be playable on mobile devices.

Seems really cool. Great concept in the method of assigning number values to clues then assigning those clues to a possible suspect. For a sense of using both fact/evidence based probability in finding who fit as the best suspect. Also in the fact that you started broad with a basic question, to start down the path toward finding suspects. Unlike other unrealistic but common ways to solve mysteries in games. Even big company games. Like using unrealistically using "fantasy technology" to be able to see and follow pretend footprints that are invisible to the naked eye (horizon). Trying to notice which criminal has "conveniently" forgotten to wash the blood from their dress shirt, despite the crime being 3 ago. Finding a horribly unrealistically placed clue to start you on a series of increasingly informative interveiws. Until the last interview essentially just states " The criminal was this person. They did it here, at this time, like this. Yet you only first heard that characters name 5 minutes before. Crimes dont get solved these ways and police work doesnt get done these ways. I think your onto something making it simpler, with more player control. Instead of simply guiding a player through a wildly, explosive, theatrical, story. Yet struggling to keep the player invested. Allow the player to entertain themselves by imagining their own story blended with thought and discovery. Simply by writing a good in depth character with soul, a story that makes players beleive and connect, with real procedure and discovery to make players feel struggle and acheivement. Not solely relying on every rock on the street having to be in 4k, 60fps display. Sure it's simple and primitive. But the direction your going, by thinking just a little outside the box. I think could help all game designers big and small. From the Rockstars of the industry, down to the garage bands of game design. Good job. Keep learning and striving. Your headed in the right direction!

Thank you so much. I imagine I'm not alone in being subscribed to some of the big gaming channels on here (TotalBiscuit, Jim Sterling, Rhykker and so on) and in dire need of a break from the recent debacles surrounding the "AAA" industry. It just warms my heart to see that even your prototype art and writing is so very endearing and even these early concepts so intriguing. I might be overreacting, but it's good to know that there's still genuine passion and creativity in this scene and I'm very much looking forward to any future updates. If there ever is anything us plebs can help you with (maybe proofreading or something similar), please don't hesitate to let us help you along.

Ohhh that's cool. Great game mechanic. That could be a really successful game. Even with low graphics. It could be a wonderful game for mobile. Extremely low CPU usage so you could play for a long time. Great to play on a train or secretly in an office. Really adaptable to different themes. I don't understand the name Hardboiled. I mean I can work out the metaphor but it would be better if it had a dual meaning. Maybe if the main character or suspect was Humpty Dumpty.

first of all, it's pretty cool... but what language is this in, and what libraries or frameworks or stuff did you use? the scrollbars don't look custom for example, which is why I'm wondering... I know it's not important but just curious...

As a proof of concept, I like this! It still needs tons of work (obviously), but it looks to be coming along well. I do wonder, though, what purpose pre-accusing someone serves. It seems to me that a savvy player would continue searching for evidence until a suspect has a 100+ guilt rating and then turn them in, completely avoiding any potential wrongful accusations. The only real purpose to accusing someone early would be to simply skip parts of the game (I suppose out of a lack of interest in that part? For instance, someone gets bored and wants to end the case early so they immediately try to accuse B without finding more evidence first).

If you want to add some overly complex game mechanics and need programming help with them, just message me :D Just kidding, programming overly complex game mechanics is probably the most fun thing to do so I can understand if you want to do this all by yourself...but I wouldn't mind if I could help somewhere for free of course.

Really interesting stuff! As of right now, what happens when you press, say "A supports B" instead of "A and B therefore C". In other words, what happens if you click the "wrong button"? Good Luck on your project :D I would love to see where it goes!

The mechanics really look good. Never saw this kind of game. As for the theme, personally, I think it would make more sense to be in a 30-40s or 70-80s, BUT making it in the fantasy realm is also cool and pretty unique :)

Your description at the beginning makes me think of One Night Ultimate Werewolf. Do you think you'll develop a multiplayer game? I know there are games similar to One Night Ultimate Werewolf, but I'd like to ask.

I really like where this is going. It might work well to have fairly minimalist artwork even in the completed version- sort of like a stage show with sets. Have you considered using Fuzzy Logic ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_logic ) when combining evidence? Having some clues that are ambiguous (because of the language used) and could mean more than one thing might also add an extra challenge. Best of luck bringing it to completion.

I like the concept, obviously needs some work, but it's a really good beginning. I know how hard making a game is, you've got something great. More complex and longer cases would make it really interesting. I actually like the hand drawn style. I obviously don't know where you're headed with this game, but something I like to have in this kind of games is an automated notepad or something that reminds you what you did in the previous chapters. I think your game would really benefit from that if you're planning on having all the cases interconnect.

I stumbled on this by accident (some GameDev videos in my history) but I really like the concept! It looks nice that I would even consider it playing with graphics close to the current ones (close, as it would be hard to recognize characters and such). I'm looking forward to see more of this game and try it out some time. :) Keep up the good work and good luck! :-)

I am a 16 year old who is aspiring to make games in the near future. I would like to ask what are somethings that you have learned from making this small build of the game? What steps and processes did it take? What did you wish you knew before and after? I know this is a lot, but I would really value your feedback and hope to gain something from your experience. Your game looks amazing so far, even though it has a long way to go, the concepts and systems in place look and sound amazing. I hope to see more of this and eventually play it one day. Thank you very much and good luck with you game!

This is a really cool idea! I can see how the deducing mechanic could make the player really feel like they're solving the case with their own intelligence. Also, your boss being an animal sort of reminds me of the principal from boku no hero. I do have some thoughts that you are free to ignore: 1) I think that the score given to the clues would make more sense if they were the percentage chance that the person is guilty. In other words you can only get a score of 100 if that person is actually guilty. You could make achieving 100% a very difficult thing intended only for completionists. This way, accusing someone would always be intense because of the chance you are wrong unless you got 100%. 2) How will you stop someone from cheating by simply accusing all the candidates until they get the right person by chance? Even if you set them back to an earlier point it seems like regaining their progress would be trivial as long as they remembered what to do.

Great job! As someone already pointed out, do check out Mark Brown's video on detective games: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gwV_mA2cv_0.html

I like your clue system. I've thought in the past about how one would go about making a Buffy the Vampire Slayer video game, and I thought a lot of it would probably be that sort of mystery-solving gameplay, where you're collecting pieces of information and using them to make deductions.

I think the jump from "lemon fairies are a thing" and "lemon stuff in A's desk" to "someone is trying to sabotage A" is a bit of a leap, unless lemon fairy infestation is 1) a somewhat common problem that people would be aware of (and the player would have to be informed of this fact), and 2) something that people would actively try to avoid (like not leaving food out to avoid attracting ants).

I love that you make games for yourself :) Your so unique and better than money grabbing PEOPLE!!!! that steal other people's code graphic styles and sell it to the world.

It looks like your making a big mistake in your implementation. Rather than using a point system that looks like some kind of emotional meter (which is useless for criminal investigation), you should use a boolean true/false system, whereby your character simply goes around discovering the answers to true/false statements. Also you obviously need to implement a conflict resolution system when through the use of the 'true/false system', a contradiction is found (i.e. he says he was there, she says he was not there etc...). The 'resolution system' has no way to (if you want to be realistic) guarantee knowledge of the truth. In the even of a 'he said, she said' sort of scenario your character would have to look around for other witnesses . What your doing could get very complex, but I really think you need to start with a true/false system as the foundation of the characters discovery path.

My friends and me are doing something similar. A problem we had early on was that complexity scales really quickly, expecially with interconnected cases; the number of clues and their connections became hard to keep track off during development, and that in turn made me unsure about our ability to convey the needed information in a clear manner, expecially considering that in an investigation some clues should be deliberately misleading. We solved our problems by reducing the scope of our game, both in number of explorable areas than in number of cases implemented, or case as it ended up being only one, I'm happier about the quality of what we ended up doing, but I've to admit to feel a little upset about the possibilities lost, I hope you'll find a way to make it work. I liked a lot the idea of the library, it's an elegant way to give info dump to the player and make them feel smart about it; the comparation system too is quite ingenious, far deeper than anything I came up with, but it doesn't look that fun next to the exploring and clue gathering. From the look of it comparing info is going to be the bigger part of your gameplay, if so it should be engaging in its own right with some kind of puzzlelike mechanic or a more flashed out percentage system. I wish you well in your endeavour.

The concept looks pretty good so far. Whoever, I would like to offer some unwanted suggestions lol. First, if the perpetrators are always the same through different playthroughts, it will severely damage the replay value. I suggest you make it randomized so people have a reason to keep playing after finishing the game. I understand this means writing a lot more dialogue, creating cases around it and so on but would greatly increase the value of the game. Would also be cool if after each case, you get a big text in the middle of the screen that says "case closed" and that's it. No indication if the person convicted is actually the perpetrator or not. Same thing happens in the real world, we assume the convict is guilty but that's not always the case. I would also like to see some characters break down and confess and others keep lying to the end trying to save themselves. Similarly, an innocent npc wrongly convicted should also claim innocence forever. Second, I can see there is quite a bit of dialogue each time you speak to a character. It would be annoying if you accidentally speak to someone and have to smash the talk button for like 5 seconds straight to skip unwanted dialogue. Implementing an "exit dialogue" button could help with this. You could disable it during plot sensitive dialogue. Third, I can see there is a lot of back and forth while investigating so increasing the movement speed of the character would prevent the backtracking from getting too tedious. Last, hope not all cases are black and white. Grey morals are always cool to see in games. Committing a crime to help others, killing in self defense, stealing from a thief, things like that.

This is my first time finding your channel. I'm looking forward to more of your work. I wonder, how big do you plan on your game getting? Do you have a GDD? Can someone you accuse be found guilty even if they are innocent? Will the game adapt to that event? Such as, they lack an alibi and false testimony puts them at the scene, do you want to let that happen?

Congratulations!! It´s really awesome to see the sparkle in your eyes cause you created this game on your own. I am at the very start of my journey. From zero ...to a game creator. I will spend more than six months working on it. Maybe six Years :-D But I am already happy with the results. Keep it up!

Great thing! Great idea! Conceptual thought: Very good in my opinion. That's why musicans are good in programming (and other stuff) ' 'cause they use more than a half of the total brain!! :thumbsupp:

BTW since this is a detective type game and you are already using clues that have a logical way of expressing them, you can google for "Logic Matrix Puzzles" for a ton of examples where a limited number of clues can actually figure out the relationships between a decently sized group of details. They tend to be things like figuring out first names, last names, and relationships, but in the end those 'categories' are abstract concepts. You can pop out the puzzle, replace it with your own set of categories, and rephrase the clues so they have the same logical meaning but just reference the new 'details' and that can be used to procedurally generate a lot of different crimes scenerios that you know are solvable because the original puzzle was solvable

Would be cool if you actually made them into anthropomorphized animals (in a non furry way). You know like make the eagle an eagle in a suit, Abegail could be a mouse or something (this being a society that has gotten past predator and prey and her being an ex-prey animal would be kind of cool). Anyway this is just me getting inspired :)

very cool, gurl I really understand the passion for making videogames, I think that right now I like making/studying/reading about videogames even more than actually playing. I like all the story not just ingame but also how they were made, and I love getting my hands dirty and messing with all the kinds of software, learning something every 10 minutes and spending all my free time on this x) So yeah, its really nice to see you having fun with the development, because I feel the same!

Please make a video about matrices and their use in games (I encounter them as means of keeping information about objects' position, orientation and speed). For instance I has been watching guide about in-game scripts in space engineers, that allow you make a bot that follows you (it needs to know where it's and whee are you, so guy in this guide made a solution with matrices but I dint get it))) You have a talent to explain hard stuff in a simple way so I hope you can shed some light on this hard-to-swallow topic.))

Nice. There aren't many original mystery/detective/logic games (or game series) that I can't think of either commercial or indie. Maybe 2 or 3 in (literally) decades, maybe because they are actually hard to design compared to other kind of games.

Love the concept. Love the gameplay. You need some artist friends. I've always thought it would be cool to use some recusion deep learning networks in a game like this if your still thinking of gameplay ideas. Have an artist look at this you might flesh some more ideas out. Love the idea but I'm having a hard time visualising without decent art. What system are you using to create this game, your own engine Unity 2d, or something else?

I suggest you to keep the world design using handmade drawings it gives a nice organic look.For the NPC interaction you can add different psychological disorders that can affect your dialog conversation (this can include the player itself so maybe you can forget some clues).For the clue system i suggest to use fuzzy logic.I am looking forward to see the implementation of the court system.Overall i can see a really nice game potential here so keep working on the game.

I think you're being too modest...the game actually looks pretty cool. Great game mechanics. I would love to play hardboiled.

Congratulations on your progress! Your videos are always inspiring to me. Seeing you making strides towards your dreams gives me hope that I can do the same(if I wasn't so damn lazy that is). Keep up the good work and keep sharing :D

I wonder if putting numbers on clues is a good idea. Putting hard numbers on clues kinda leads the player by the nose eliminating freedom of choice because why would you ever utilize a clue worth 20 points vs a clue worth 50 points? I think the clues have to be more intuitive and fluid, the clues have to build a story not a math equation. Then you can compare stories you put together by the clues and chose which one is more likely to be true. Also have a snapshot function in the game to take screenshots so the player doesn't have to memorize possible important clues. Also allow the player to link snapshots to help build their story.

I was thinking that for this kind of game, we could probably employ the kind of user interface of those visual scripting tools. Could've used different nodes for different logical relationships.

Seems really interesting, I don't usually like mysteries too much, but I love puzzles and your logic game just turned the usual mystery gameplay into a puzzle, so you get the interesting mystery stories + interesting puzzle gameplay, seems like a combo I'd really enjoy! :D

Check this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gwV_mA2cv_0.html ; Mark Brown explains how giving written clues might make the player feel like they are not discovering anything, but giving a search system does give a sensation of 'real detective thinking'.

Kinda classic Cluedo, but also check out Cinemawares old Amiga game "It came from the desert!" which your concept reminds me of. I loved that game back in the late '80s.

Literal suggestion for Person A & B: Alice and Bob! from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_and_Bob

Hi TheHappieCat :) i'm also working full time in software engineering and started recently to take my self into this game dev journey, we all have a story to tell and what better way than video games. I would love to see how your projects evolve and what you learned. Keep up the good work, if you ever need a pixelArtist for your game ideas just ping me i would love to help. keep up the nice work.

This is awesome! I think something that could be really cool would be to take your base case with A and B and find a way to generalize the scripting and logic so you can create a tool that lets you add gameplay scenarios quickly. Easier said than done, but you'd be able to add lots of depth by building up some kind of embedded database, which would work so well with a concept like this. I think the fully realized game would be really fun!

Congrats on your progress! Randomly found this and love the concept and motivation. I could totally see this evolving in to investigating cookie thieves in the intro and getting promoted to solve more complex societal issues/criminal activities. The fantasy theme of coexisting between previously warring factions really stimulates the imagination. Good luck, looking forward to see what you come up with next.